Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Agrofest, an annual event to celebrate farmer's day in Perak, normally held in SungaiSiput (Infotec) and originally earmarked to be held at the end of last year was cancelled. Early January this year, it was announced that it will be held instead at a sleepy town in ParitBuntar, along the idyllic meanders of Sungai Kerian.

The town, as if rejuvenated, woke up and on 12th January 2012, scores of cars and buses ferrying people from nearby towns created traffic jams and the whole town became the center of attraction.

Our orchid show was organised within days and we only informed our members less than 10 days before the show commenced. Our committee was worried that we may not have enough orchids for the show.

On 12th morning, our expectations changed and as usual this show was well supported with nearly 300 plants entered by 28 participants. Not only were there many plants but also most of them were show plants of high quality. Please do not believe what we say but visit our Perak Orchid Societyfacebook to view all the orchid photographs taken by Mr. Robert Ang and form your own opinion.

The Cattleya, Phalaenopsis and Paphiopedilum sections were very strongly supported and there were so many plants that some have to be placed on the floor.

Two groups of judges led by Miss Peggy Tan and Mr. Leong Tuck Lock had a hard time voting for the winning plants.

11 sections with 50 classes were opened and Best Plant of the Show went to Mr. Hew FookYong with his entry of Cyc. Anne-Kathrin Berger x cooperii, a healthy plant with 2 spikes bearing more than 15 flowers each. According to him, this plant originally had 3 spikes and he had to cut of one as it had overbloomed.

The Best Runner-Up Plant, a Bulb. aff. lepidium, with more than 50 flowers was entered by Mr. Johnny Neoh.

The Best Species went to Mr. SinChan Wah from Cameron Highlands with his entry of Den. finesterae.

We were honored to have Miss Peggy Tan, President of OSSEA (Orchid Society of South East Asia) who came all the way from Singapore especially to be our international judge. In the photograph she is seen with Mr Choe Kim Fah (President of the Perlis Orchid Society) and Mr. Low Siam Leng (President of FOMOSPenang) and Mr. Robert Ang from Perak Orchid Society.

One very interesting event was this fisherman in his boat fishing for prawns in the sluggish SungaiKerian. As we were watching him fish, he was conversely watching the orchid show. He started his outboard motor and came ashore, walked up to our sales booth and in 5 minutes bought 3 pots of catesetum. Before you can say Jack Robinson, he was back in his boat and speeding away back to his home in Kedah. just across the river to safeguard his precious cargo from the searing sun.

We had so many visitors to our show. I think more than 100 thousand people visited Agrofest and our vendors have had a field day selling almost all their stocks. Many from the nearby university (USM) also came to visit our show and in particular, Mr Saber M A Alkasseh from Palestine who showed great interest in orchids and asked many questions regarding the cultivation of orchids and whether it can be grown in their own country.Show Manager: Handan Osman

Chief Judge: Leong Tuck Lock

A word of thanks to all the committee members, judges and friends who have in one way or another worked so hard to make this show a great success.

We will have our monthly show at the Island between IpohPerade and DBI on the 3rd week of Febuary.

Other shows earmarked to be held in conjuction with VisitPerak Year, are as follow:

1) Sultan of Perak show in KualaKangsar in April

2) International Orchid conference in Ipoh in June

Please check our blog or facebook for further information regarding these shows.

Only a few photographs are uploaded to this blog. For more, visit Perak Orchid Society facebook

Thursday, January 5, 2012

A two day show held at Arena Square, Batu Gajah in conjunction with the Karnival Wanita & Keluarga Perak 2011 on the 17 and 18 December 2011 was a total success. This annual carnival is for the betterment of economy for women and families in the state of Perak.A total of 182 show quality plants were entered and the Best Plant of the Show was awarded to Mr. Cha Chuan Tuck with his entry of Dendrobium Candy Stripes x Den Doreen.A total of 25 classes were opened and prizes were RM30: 20 :15 were given to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize respectively. Best Plant of the Show was given RM100 and Best Runner-up RM70.

Best Runner up of the Show was awarded to Mr. Foo Yuk Weng, with his entry of Phalaenopsis cornu-cervi

Prizes were given by YB Dato' Hamidah Osman and YB Dato' Haji Jamry bin Sury to the two big prize winners, followed by a tour of the show which was led by Leong Tuck Lock and Robert Ang.

Judges of the show were as follow:-

Mr. Hew Fook Yoong (Chief)

Mr. Low Kok Keong

Encik Roslan

Liew Chee Seng

Theow Kim Fook

Leong Tuck Lock

A few photograhs of enteries of the show is attached below. For more photographs please go to our Perak Orchiod Society facebook.

The show was well supported by members from Perak Orchid Society and also from the other orchid societies around the region.A total of 336 plants were entered for the show . All 40 classes were represented by very high quality and showy exhibits. In some classes, there were even more than 20 entries in each class.Best Plant of the Show went to Mr. Liew Chee Seng with his evergreen Dendrobium Frosty Dawn, a showy plant with more than 50 flowers. This plant has won many top prizes in other orchid shows in the past.

Mr. Liew Chee Seng, indeed POS best grower, also won the Runner Up Plant with his entry of Arundina graminifolia, another showy plant with more than 100 flowers. This plant commonly known as the bamboo orchid, can be found extensively along the highways and especially along the roads leading up to Cameron Highlands. However, this variety is a hybrid of the dwarf variety.

Best Species went to Mr. Sit Tai Choy with his entry of Rhy. retusa, another very showy plant with 8 spikes. As retusa normally blooms at the end of the year, there were half a dozen retusa at the show and the judges picked this particular plant because of the number of spikes.

The show was opened by Yang Bahagia Dato' Haji Jamry bin Haji Sury, District Officer of Batu Gajah on 26th Novemberr 2011 at 6p.m. After the short opening ceremony, our President, Dato' Dr. Majumder together with some of our committee members, showed Dato all the plants that were on exhibition. A phalaenopis was then presented to Dato' Jamry in appreciation of his support for our Society.

As this was supposed to be an International Show, we invited many judges from around the Asian region to participate in our show but due to unforseen circumstances, quite a number of judges could not make it to our show. The Indonesian could not get their exit permits in time and the Thais had to return to their farms immediately after WOC to check on the flood situation in their country.

Judges are as follows:

1 I-Sheng Chen (Taiwan)

2 Long-Huei Chen (Taiwan)

3 Thomas Chow (Singapore)

4 Dato' Dr Fonseka (OSM)

5 Chan Weng Woh (OSM)

6 Neoh Cheow Chen (TOS)

7 Tan Eng Khoon (TOS)

8 Johnny Cheah (FOMOS)

9 Tan Kim Lean (FOMOS)

10 Lawrence Tang (KOS)

11 Lim Ee Lim (KOS)

12 Liew Chee Seng (POS)

13 Low Kok Keong(POS)

14 Roslan Ismail (POS)

Show Manager: Mr Leong Tuck Lock

Chief Judge: Mr Hew Fook Yoong

Recorders: Jessie Lee

Robert Ang

A few photographs taken from the show are reproduced below. For more photographs, please go to our Perak Orchid Society Blog.

The next International show will be held at Sungei Siput on th 18th December 2011. Further details will be included in our Perak Orchid Society Blog so please keep a lookout for it.

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About Me

I live in Ipoh. Perak, Malaysia. I have a 1.1 acrea agriculture land where I built my house and grow orchids mostly phalaenopsis (novelty type)and dendrobiums (horn type)initially as a hobby.Presently I also grow Catasetum,Tolumnia, Cattelya and Vandas. Recently my wife, Jessie, gave up her lucrative job to join me in turning this hobby into a commercial enterprise and we have registered a company called Eucharist Orchids Nursery and Laboratory to market our orchids.
I am a hybridizer and grow my new hybids in vitro in my laboratory. I hybridize by seed and stem propagation.
In 2009 I was elected as the Vice President and my wife Jessie, the Hon treasurer, of the Perak Orchid Society.
In 2010 I was nominated by OSSEA as their Distinguished Associate for the State of Perak.
Other related blogs:
http://eucharistorchids.blogspot.com
http://perakorchidsoc.blogspot.com
http://robertacs.blogspot.com